“Who’s Your Employee?” An Independent Contractor and Employee Classification Webinar

In 1990 the Internal Revenue Service ruled that Microsoft misclassified certain workers as independent contractors. Following this ruling approximately 10,000 current and former contingent workers sued Microsoft for benefits, including the ability to participate in its lucrative stock-purchase plan. They also sued for the value of past benefits that Microsoft did not provide. In 2000, Microsoft agreed to pay $97 million to settle the class action. During the 20 years since that decision, contingent workers have filed many lawsuits in the past few years claiming that they have been wrongly denied benefits provided to permanent employees because companies have misclassified them.

On July 29, 2020, Vorys attorneys Peggy Baron and Jacquie Abbott hosted a webinar on the benefit issues related to identifying employees and how employers can protect against misclassification. Attendees learned about guidelines that federal and state governments use as well as the consequences of misclassification.

To watch the on-demand version of the webinar, please click here.